The Bettencourt Baits Dying Trout

I have a thing with stalling and deadsticking. It’s a universal truth of catching fish on bigbaits. It’s a part of my approach to picking baits, and choosing my style of retrieve. Context. The Bettencourt Baits Dying Trout is approximately 7″ long and no more than 2 ounces. It’s not exactly a mega-bait, but what it lacks in bigbait appeal, it makes up for in a killer swim, stall, and death dance. It’s also likely something the fish haven’t seen yet. I can see setting up on a prime rocky point, or offshore spot with a sweet spot, and really setting up for one or two prime casts. I would swim this thing right into mother hen’s den, and then kill it…..and let it sit on the surface for as long as you can stand it. Then twitch it once or twice hard and violent and let it sit again. You could really draw a killer strike on this bait, if you knew where some big ones lived and need a fresh approach.

Here’s a little video, from one my favorite places to film on earth, in Cotter, Arkansas:

Not to say, you couldn’t just ‘go fishing’ and catch fish with the Dying Trout. It’s a great bait, and my hat is off to Nathan Bettencourt for making baits uniquely his own. His Dying Bluegill was a fun bait to test. They aren’t swimbaits you go power fishing and cover tons of water with. You need to take your time to fish the Dying Trout or the Dying Bluegill right. So, if you found yourself in 3 feet of clear water on lake Okeechobee, and magnums up and around beds, you should fish the Dying Bluegill. If you find yourself off a prime main lake point with a sweet spot that gets a little shade in the afternoon, I’d fish it there. Another tool to try out. It’s going to force you to slow down, which is a good thing, most times.